Tuesday, January 13, 2009

I have been getting some concerned emails regarding the earthquake felt in Costa Rica. On Thursday, January 8th Costa Rica experienced a 6.2 earthquake. As many of you know, earthquakes are a part of life in CR, and therefore not that strange or rare. Nonetheless, this one was close to the surface, and created a lot of damage. Some might be familiar with Fraijanes where we have often sent missions' groups to Roy Soto's church and some are very familiar with the Poas Waterfall Gardens. These are the regions worst hit by the earthquake. The road to and from the waterfall gardens has collapsed and the gardens were falling apart. The bottom where you get picked up by the bus, and further down have completely been buried under landslides. There have been close to 20 deaths, and about as many disappearances.

We have a student from that region whose grandfather lost his home. There are over 2500 displaced people. The mountains basically fell on some homes.